World before but what was sensible outward and coercive and all Gospel-Power must be such or none a Plea to what is otherwise is a Cheat and Imposture And in answer to which I must here repeat in part what I have said in the beginning of the Third Chapter of this Treatise upon another occasion § XI THAT the Church is a Body but of a quite differing Nature a various Design and Constitution for another purpose according to that eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3.11 a Body but the Body of Christ framed and fitted alone according to the fulness of the measure of his Stature his Body which is the Church Eph. 5.23 an Association of People incorporated and united under him their Head in one Spirit one Lord one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4.4 5. growing up into him in all things who is the head even Christ Ephes 4.15 a Body that is to be visible subject to outward sense but 't is by an Holy Life and Religious Conversation that which Men are to see is their good works and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven and all grants to its Officers Power Means Ordinances are only in order hereunto the only change here design'd is the change of our vile Bodies that they may be like unto Christ's glorious Body according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself A Lordship there is but not over Kings and Scepters 't is Death and Sin Christ Jesus treads under his Feet only He is the Lord of the Sabbath invested with all Power in Heaven and Earth relating to God's Worship and Service his Adoration and Homage to appoint stablish and fix as he pleases for ever A BODY or Corporation with its different § XII Organs Parts and Members the Eye to see the Ear to hear and the Foot to walk with Parts more and less Honorable with diverse Gifts and Graces according to the measure of the Gift of Christ some to Govern others to Obey some to Preside others to Submit and be ruled by them Some of which Governors were to remain only for a time others to continue for ever as the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons Orders of Men instituted and invested by Christ not with an improper as some speak with abatement but with a true real Praefecture Power and Jurisdiction in the Church that sitting upon Twelve Thrones and Judging that Spiritual Grace and Investiture to be collated and so Promised in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new Age or State beginning just after the Resurrection of Christ it is an Autoritative Paternal Power of Chastisements Discipline and Government to be exercised on all its Subjects each one that has given up his Name unto Christ that expects any benefit of the incorporation for the keeping them in some compass within the terms of a Peaceable Holy truly Christian Congregation As are the words of our Learned Doctor Hammond in his Treatise of The Power of the Keys Cap. 1. Sect. 1. § XIII AN Incorporation with differing Offices and Duties Powers and Capacities from any other in the World to be call'd out from others from the World or any Society in it and to unite in a diverse Association which has peculiar Laws and Rules even of Morality is not enough to specifie constitute and express the Church of Christ to signalize that Collection or Association which is Christian All believe and assent so far that there is such a Sect and Coalition of Persons as are called Christians in the World and is usually call'd a Church 't is Matter of Fact self-evident and not to be denied But this Body or Church is not known and acknowledged to have such means of Salvation such Power and Efficacy such Properties and Priviledges as the true Church of Christ implies and contains The name Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to Prophane as well as Ecclesiastical Congregations whether in Athens Corinth Alexandria or Jerusalem as Origen argues against Celsus lib. 3. but all have not the Powers Operations alike The Church of God is a Society as with differing Members and Offices Services and Obligations So to differing Ends with differing Gifts and Endowments For the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying the Body of Christ Ephes 4.12 the building and raising them to Heaven in the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God Sciendum est illam esse veram Ecclesiam in qua est Confessio Penitentia quae peccata vulnera quibus subjecta est imbecillitas carnis salubriter curat as Lactantius Lib. 4. Sect. Vlt. Vbi Ecclesia ibi Spiritus Dei ubi Spiritus Dei ibi Ecclesia omnis gratia So Irenaeus l. 3. c. 40. that is the true Church where Confession is and Repentance with wholsome means to cure those Wounds and Sins to which the weakness of the Flesh is subject where there is the Spirit of God and all Grace as in the Armory of David those many Shields of the Mighty Divine Assistances and Remedies for Eternity Catholicum nomen non ex Vniversitate gentium Sed ex Plenitudine Sacramentorum as St. Austin relates of the Donatists well replying Collat. cum Donatist Tertii Diei the fulness of the Sacraments not the bare Coalition of all the Nations in the World makes the true Catholick Church And St. Austin himself says the same Ep. 48. Vincentio fratri where there is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first and second cleansing and Purgation the one the Effect of Baptism the other of Repentance In Sozomen's Church History l. 1. c. 3. Now these different Powers and Duties as distant from all others in the World besides so being diverse also as to themselves and in respect of one another according to the several Gifts and Relations these are either common to the whole each Member of the Association every Believer or else they are limited and appropriate to particular distinct Orders and Offices in the Body What Duties and Offices are common and what appropriate I am now to declare and explain § XIV AS Christians in common all of one Body and under one Head so had they one common Faith which every one Professed to which each assented and gave up his understanding whole and entire and which was a first instance of their Union as an Incorporation a signal Badg or Mark by which as a watch-word they were known to one another and distinguished from the whole World besides Now this object of belief and to which they declared their Adhesion was indeed Jesus the Son of God or Christ and him Crucified as delivered by Christ and the Apostles down unto them but because these Rules must be many and Instructions numerous as they are to this day as given in the Scriptures and every good Christian
farther that he pretends to have the judicial Determination of Bishops but really manages and does all himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. and evidently again distinguishes between the work of a Bishop and the work of an Emperor he goes on and is more daring and positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any such thing was heard of from the beginning of the World that the Judgment and Decision of the Church had its Autority and Measures from the Empire or was ever any such Determination known at all many Church Decisions have been made but never did the Presbyters perswade the Emperor to any such thing neither did the Prince intermeddle with the things of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And all this is recorded by Athanasius of the Divine and most Excellent Hosius in that his Epistle Ad Solitarium c. Pag. 840 repeating there Hosius his Epistle to 〈◊〉 on the same occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who drew up the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that was heard and submitted to by all his own words are these to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not interpose thy self nor meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs nor do you Command in these things but rather learn them of Vs to Thee God hath committed the Empire to Vs he hath deputed what is the Churches and as he that undermines the Government opposes the Ordinance of God so do thou take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest forcing to thy self the things which are of the Church you become liable to as great a guilt for it is written give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods It is neither lawful for us to have the Government upon Earth nor hast thou the Power of Holy things O King St. Jerome speaks of the evil Bishops only the Character is upon them De Ecclesiae Principibus qui non dignè regunt oves Domini as of Princes in the Church with Power of Jurisdiction in themselves in his Comments on Jeremiah cap. 23. Sacerdos est Caput the Priest is the Head an Original devolving upon others Comment in 1 Cor. 12. and upon Romans 13. Apostolus in his quae recta sunt judicibus obediendum non in illis quae Religioni contraria sunt the things of Religion are not to be subjected to Kings nor any in Autority under them And to this purpose he says again in Isai 1. Apostolos à Christo constitutos Principes Ecclesiarum the Apostles were constituted by Christ Princes of the Churches And the same is said in his Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians and particularly on Psal 44. Fuere O Ecclesia Apostoli Patres tui quia ipsi te genuere c. The Apostles O Church were thy Fathers that begot thee now because they are gone out of the World you have in their room Bishops Sons which are created of thee and those are thy Fathers by whom thou art governed The Gospel being spread in all Parts of the World in which Princes of the Church i. e. Bishops are constituted This Holy Father assigning all Church-Power to and in it self and if it be suspected whether these Comments on the Psalms be St. Jerome's own I have yet here repeated this passage out of them as most fully appearing his sense to whoso pleases to consult his Works especially his Commentary St. Augustine's Opinion we have already in part spoke of and he that will undertake an Enquiry will find him all along of the same Opinion I 'le only instance in the differences occasion'd by the Donatists and what Power the Empire assum'd to it self in those great and many Controversies and their Decisions related by him which he tells us is only to make outward Laws in defence of what appears to be Truth and says he it falls out sometimes Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore contra veritatem leges ferunt that they make Laws against Truth themselves being in Error and good Men are only prov'd thereby as evil Men by their good Laws are amended Tom. 7. l. 3. Cont. Crescon Gramat cap. 51. they command that which is Good and forbid that which is Evil Non solum quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem verùm etiam ad divinam Religionem in things which belong not only to Humane Society but to Divine Religion he has Power to enquire into debates and to provide for Truth and Peaco by the Bishops to assign the Persons Time and Place Vt superstitionem manifesta ratio confutaret that Reason may gain upon Superstition and Truth be made manifest Collat. 1. diei 3. cum Donatist Nor was Cecilianus purg'd and set free but by Judiciis Ecclesiasticis Imperialibus by the Ecclesiastical as by the Imperial Judgment and Determinations Ibid. nor will it appear that the Powers of the Empire have concern'd themselves any farther in those quarrels than by abetting or discouraging by outward Laws and Punishments what was represented as Truth unto them and which the Church alone hath not Power to do either to award at first or after mitigate but by Prayers and Arguments and therefore the Civil Laws and Indulgences have been sometimes severer and sometimes too indulgent as Accidents or Truth over-ruled as is to be seen in his Third and Fourth Books ad Cresconium and when these Laws went too hard upon these Donatists and pinched their Faction too sorely then they cried out of Persecution denied the Empire this Power in Divine things and that they were to stand at no humane Judicature as is the way of all such Factions when themselves only persecute and invade and whose Insolencies and Rapines are at large told us by St. Austin in his Forty eighth Epistle and by Optatus in his Treatise against Parmenius the Donatist Hence that of Donatus lib. 3. ibid. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church whom Optatus there sharply upbraids as well as reproves for it tells Donatus of his Pride and unheard of insolency in so doing in lifting up himself above him who is second to God alone Cum supra Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus who sits as God in all forensick outward Judicatures and no man can withstand him but Church-Power is still supposed a quite differing thing I mean that which our Saviour left immediately to his Church it falls not under this head of things 't is derived in another stream as the design of his whole Book declares nor is Optatus for this or any other like Expression to be thought to refer all Church-Power into the Empire than those other Fathers did using much the same Expressions and which is above observed and he in particular returns the rise and devolution of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter by whose Successors it was then in Siricius the Bishop in his days in his Second Book against Parmenius and so St.
the Civil Power or that Power of the State to erect an Autority against it because not of and under it that Prince cannot be said to be Supreme if a differing Power within him To be Supreme is to be above all there must be no Power apart from his who is the Supreme if so he is not Supreme This they urge with a great deal more to the same purpose and is the Stone that the great Hugo Grotius stumbles at in the entrance to his Treatise De jure Summarum Potestatum in Sacris and which occasions so many more falls he has all along in that Discourse it being stuffed with inconsistencies to it self throughout and no wonder when bottomed on so false a Principle that the Power of our Saviour is an Usurpation on the State nor does one absurdity go alone A Suspition upon Church-Government that has not the Honor to be new 't is as old as our Saviour in the Flesh and Herod we know started it against him so soon as Born in the World and his Title as King was known unto him for this he sought to kill him when an Infant and the little Children in Bethlehem were barbarously Murdered hoping the Babe Jesus might have died in the croud distrusting if he escaped he would have supplanted him of his Kingdom Nor did his Apostles after him escape the Suspition and Censure and yet our Saviour all along his life-time upon Earth and notoriously at his death still clear'd himself of the Aspersion asserting and maintaining his Power and Kingdom delivered him of the Father that All Power in Heaven and Earth and so did his Apostles too retain and exercise the same Power and with the same Innocency Nor do I doubt but to Vindicate his Body the Succeeding Church still claiming the like Power and that to every rational considering Person to each one that with Herod has not a design and believes it his interest to kill our Saviour to blot out his Power and Name and Memory on Earth § IV AND indeed to pass by the particular Answers to the Objection which will follow in course upon our Procedure the Objection must fall of it self to any one of common sense that exercises not his Enquiries more about Tricks and Phrases to wheedle delude and carry on his own particular Plot and Party then about that which is notorious Matter of Fact certain Truths and realities One thing I know that whereas I was blind I now see a Man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said unto me Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash And I went and washed and I received sight He put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and do see This was the Answer of the Man that was born Blind and cured by our Saviour John 9.11.15.25 and this great notoriety to common sense baffled all the Malice and Purposes superseded all their trifling Enquiries designed to obscure the Power and Miracle of our Saviour's working that mighty Cure upon him as whether it was done on the Sabbath Day the Person was a Sinner c. and the same common sense and notoriety of Matter of Fact will be our Evidence and Avoucher in this our particular Case also and is the alone Answer we need to give in able indeed to baffle whatever the Skill of an Objector can lay or whatever inconsistencies the wit of Man may urge against us Can any even a Pharisaical race of Men ill-natur'd and Perverse give out and believe That that Body of Christians their Bishops and Governors should Assert and Maintain a Kingdom and Jurisdiction upon Earth destructive to that of the Empire or Secular by whose breath they in their Persons professed to subsist for whose Persons and Government and the Prosperity of both they always Pray'd and in the first place as by whose Influences they were to live Godly lives in all Godliness and Honesty whose Battels they fought whom they Honoured with all the titles of Power and Majesty and Magnificence whom but to think Evil of to Curse in their Hearts in their Bed-Chambers much more openly to Defame and speak Evil of was their Sin and Irreligion whom they acknowledged upon Earth as under God alone and to God alone accountable for all their Actions and Designs nor could any Man say what doest thou And all this they still Remonstrated and Publish'd to the World under the deepest sense of Religion and Zeal with the most solemn Protestations as in all their Apologies Defences and Writings does appear who made it a term of their Communion to Serve Support and Assist the Emperor to shew themselves Faithful and Just and Conscientious towards him equally as to serve their God and Saviour as to say their Prayers for themselves and live Righteously and Soberly in the World and the contrary was a just occasion for their Censures an Intermination upon the Offender who too often died under their Tyranny came peaceably to the Stake neither accusing nor reviling as under the stroke of God himself sealing with their Blood such their Obedience Nor in all our first Church-Story do we find the Catholick Christian engaged in any thing like a Plot or Council against his Governor his either Person or Power much less an open Rebel against him when either an Heathen or Heretick and his professed Persecutor for an Heretick has been no less Cruel than an Heathen and when to make up the Charge by their Malice as in the particular case of Athanasius accused as designing against the Empire by the Arians and Meletians to be accused was his great trouble to be under the Suspition of so foul a Crime being otherways able to acquit himself and so he did and indeed so generally received a Truth was it that a Christian could not be a Rebel or attempt any thing upon the Empire So much was it concluded of the Essence of his Profession that when his Enemies thought effectually to blemish and make him appear no Christian they libell'd him as a Rebel the more and the better a Christian the more did his Prince confide in him and 't is very well urg'd by our Adversaries that Constantine did look upon them as his great Support and Preservers nor could the Empire in all Probability have been continued to him without their Aid and Fidelity and for which his Favours and Temporalities were deservedly large unto them but this is their Error when they tell the World that all Church-Power was then and is still continued upon this score and by the alone favour of Princes IF it be said that all this was the effect § V alone of common Prudence and usual Wisdom they thus provided for their interest the Security in general of their both Religion and Persons and which all Wise Men do in the first place take care of they were wanting both of Power and Opportunity to do otherwise and had it not been so the Hypocrisie had ceased they had both appeared and
that they had then been Excommunicated In Rom. 6.17 and in 1 Cor. 5.11 by the Keys of David he understands not only he that hath the Power of Death and Hell but he that hath Plenissimum Imperium the entire Power in the House of God as Eliachim had in the House of David Ad Apoc. 3.7 and then which what more can be desired by us and how consistent with himself any one may see I 'le only add the words of our Profound Mr. Thorndike in his Treatise of the Laws of the Church p. 395. He that in his Preface to his Annotations on the Gospel shall read him disclaiming whatever the Consent of the Church shall be found to refuse will never believe that he had admitted no Corporation of the Church without which no Consent thereof could have been observed And 't is I say from these his Annotations on the Gospels we are to find and know what are his Sentiments if any where he desires us to have recourse hither if we will read his other things with Profit in his Preface to the Reader Now that those above cited Treatises in which his Errors as to Church-Government are so visible were all wrote when he was young 't is certain and that he was too much pre-occupated and prejudiced by his Education and particular Converse and Business at Amsterdam in such his Youth follows in course and himself was afterwards sensible of and lamented it throughout his whole Life And thinks it less Candid and Ingenious in Andrew Rivette that he objects those things against him that he had wrote some times since Cum illi multarum rerum conspectum adimeret nimius Patriae amor cùm esset Parvulus loquebatur ut Parvulus when the over-much love to his Country did take from him the sight of many things When he was a Child he wrote as a Child Rivet Apol. Discuss Pag. 732. And it must be also very harsh and severe in us should we object against him that his particular Treatise of the Power of the Supreme Magistrate in Holy Things which that it is a Posthumous work 't is most apparent And farther That he disown'd it when it was wrote and never design'd it for the Press 't is more then probable especially if we give Credit to what account our Herbert Thorndike gives of it in his Laws of the Church the last Chapter That at his being in England he left it with two great Prelates of our Church Lancelot Lord Bishop of Winchester and John Lord Bishop of Norwich to peruse and both of them advising him not to Print it he rested in their Judgments and 't was laid aside till his Death And indeed that that Treatise was not the issue of a fixed Judgment but to serve a Party appears from the unevenness of the Discourse contradicting it self frequently and contending against the very design of it the great Argument of a raw imperfect confused Notion And particularly if we consider he was every ways an adherent to the Holland Remonstrants a sort of Men that in Prejudice to the Church so extremely flatter'd the Civil Magistrate as our Author makes it appear Ibid. suprà though he never drank so deep of the Cup as to take off the Dregs as he himself farther pleads to Rivet concerning some Presbyterian Tenents imbibed in his Youth Ibid. suprà and acknowledges much to the Mercies of God that when compassed round with their so great Power he could never be brought to Approve that which is proper to Calvinists Ibid. And how easily these things slide into Mankind how incredibly they work and how difficultly cast off Experience too much Evidences The Natural Love to a man's Country the Prejudice of his Education the higher Imployments in it its Applause and Acclamations All which Grotius had in a great measure The latter alone is able to spoil a Judgment it must do it where entertained and pursued and though he that reads over Grotius and says he is not the better for him such is his excellent and incomparable Notion must be either a great Fool or very ill natur'd yet 't is to be doubted some of these never quitted him quite his Theological Works lately Printed together give too great a Presumption all Amsterdam somewhere or other being to be found in them and every one may pick out or very near it his own Religion So fatal is it for Men of great Parts to set out without some first Principles as he did and frame their Scheme of Divinity to the present Notion and Conception no regard had to something receiv'd and certain So in course does it follow what in him is to be found and nothing could have done him so much right as in the setting out of his Works to have given account to the World of the particular time when they were each of them Composed and first made Publick All that I shall add more concerning Grotius is this In the pursuance of his assumed Notion of Supreme laid down by him in the Entrance to his Treatise De Imperio summarum Potestatum in Sacris and which is the chief occasion of his following Mistakes As To be Supreme is to be above all indefinitely in the full Latitude of things and where fixed and attributed to any one Person or Subject the very Design and Nature of the Expression will allow none to be excluded or exempted from a Submission and Subjection no other Power can be supposed and not in Subordinacy and Dependency upon to be and subsist without and besides it He is so unhappy as to fall into and pursue the same Mistake the Jesuit had done in Doctor Bilson's Book of Christian Subjection and Obedience in the Second Part who there thus argues against the Oath of Supremacy If Princes be Supreme Governors over all Persons in all Causes then in vain did the Holy Ghost appoint Pastors and Bishops to govern the Church then are they Superior to Christ himself in effect being Christ's Masters then may they prescribe which way to Worship God And goes on a little farther and declares his dislike to Supreme in the Oath because that word maketh Princes Superior to God himself for Supreme is Superior to all neither Christ's own Person nor his Church excepted Now I say this one and the same Notion of Grotius and the Jesuit if adhered unto and both will continue to allow it they are upon equal Grounds and with the same advantage sight against one another and the Combat may be Eternal only of Skirmishes and some Blows but no Victory on either side When Grotius goes along with our Church of England and makes his Magistrate Supreme in all Causes and over all Persons the Jesuite tells him That to be Supreme is above all to be Superior to all and he sets up his Prince above God and Christ and the Church when the Jesuit asserts the Supreme Power of the Church of God Grotius upon the same Ground replies the self-same thing upon
it self how inconsistent with his own Schemes and Concessions and what seems farther necessary to a thorow Answer and the carrying on withal and clearing this my own particular Discourse follows in the succeeding Sections AND part of my Answer shall be by way § IX of Concession yielding to him in some measure what he contends for That the Kingdom Government and Jurisdiction of the Gospel is not cannot be outwardly forcing and Coercive by the either Instruments or Penalties of this World To assert such a Power erected by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is immediately and with the same breath to publish it a Cheat an Imposture and Usurpation 't is in the very letter to Affront and Contradict the very Plot Frame and Constitution of it since Christ himself has declared that his Kingdom is not of this World neither laid in the contrivance either sustain'd or supported in the ways and courses of it If it had been so he had surely never appeared in the World in that meaner form and lower order he did a different way then by dying upon the Cross had been design'd for the managery and accomplishment of it he could have call'd for Fire from Heaven as Elijah did upon the Head of his Gain-sayers a course of Proceedings agreeable enough to that present Constitution whose Rewards and Penalties were Carnal in the hands of a Temporal Jurisdiction or have had Millions of Angels his Seconds to smite as they did Sennacherib's Army in one Night one Minute all that opposed that sat in Judgment against him or with but one word from his Mouth laid any one gain-sayer flat upon the ground as he did those few that came first to lay hold of him when he was betrayed He was not sent into the World weak and unable with less perfect Credentials and Instructions or lesser Power than other Prophets or Holy Men had which were sent into the World before him all was full and perfect in order to the Message and Embassy the Errand he came into the World for he came with more with all Power in Heaven and Earth given him the Power of the Kingdom wholly and solely delivered up unto him only he came of a different Errand and Design than some others had come of before him he was of another Spirit and to work his work quite in another manner and by other Weapons not such as were Carnal but Spiritual mighty indeed to the beating down strong holds but of Sin and Sathan he came not to destroy but to save that which was lost to lay hold on the Seed of Abram when he passed by the fallen Angels lest they come into their blackness of darkness those Chains they are now reserv'd in for Judgment And let any one but seriously peruse and consider this great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preach'd unto the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up into Glory let him look over the History of his Saviour his first coming from Heaven his whole Life Actings Suffering Dying rising again and ascending into Heaven and he can discern nothing like an outward sensible worldly Regiment and Jurisdiction to be erected or executed by him any outward force upon Mens either Persons or Lives or Fortunes in bringing about that work he was sent for into the World by the Father to do is the intent and purpose of it and as he had not neither can he be conceived to have had a design in his own Person to exercise a worldly Dominion or did he delegate others his Apostles and principal Ministers to any such Office and Undertakings his being Preach'd to the Gentiles and believed on in the World implied or inferr'd nothing of it but the quite contrary nor could any be his Adherents and Followers on any such purposes With an industrious Zeal he still removed it out of the apprehensions and thoughts of his Disciples when on Earth among them he told St. Peter he was an Offence to him when savouring these things of Men fancying him to reign as a Temporal Prince on Earth with outward force and Power to repel the Injuries of his Adversaries St. Mat. 16.21 22 23. As also when his Disciples required him to call down Fire from Heaven upon the Heads of his Enemies in St. Luke's Gospel urging to St. Peter and all of them those quite different Doctrines of his Gospel That if any man will come after him let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him that whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life shall save it and 't is to save the Soul not gain the World is to be their aim in becoming his Disciples And thus did they Preach Christ ever since the Holy Ghost so fully came upon them reproving the World of Sin of Righteousness and Judgment the work of the Comforter Joh. 16.7 8. And that trifling Argument as if want of Power and Prudential forbearance made them not to attempt any thing more is what cannot fall under the thoughts of a considering Person He that by Twelve mean Persons as were the Apostles could convert so great a part of the World by the same Power and Instruments could he have over-ruled the Persons of the rest of the World to Master and bring into Captivity to the Law of Faith an undisciplined unruly Understanding and Will is as great a Work of the Almighty as to subdue the whole Person The Mind is as difficultly conquer'd as the Body and more difficultly too because no immediate outward force can be put upon it He that when meer Idiots and Ignaro's gave them the Understanding and Tongue of the Learned could also have given them the Arm of the Mighty and Valiant St. Peter who with but one word from his Mouth struck dead Ananias and Saphira his Wife for cheating the Church might with one word from his Mouth also have reversed the Edict of Nero appointing him to be crucified at Rome have enfeebled those hands of the Executioner that nailed and fixed him on the Cross St. Paul who struck Elymas the Sorcerer Blind might have smote Ananias on the Bench made that officious reviling Orator Tertullus to be Dumb and baffled Nero with all his Power had outward Coercion and Force been the assigned way to Plant and Propagate Religion a general course set up a standing Rule either for the present or Succession of Ages However God thought fit to give special Instances of such his Power upon particular notorious Sinners by the hands of his Apostles to let the World see it was not against the Nature of the Gospel though not in the intent of it thus to have them dealt with in particular Cases to preserve the horror in remembrance till the appointed time till the Empire became Christian in whose hands not the Apostles and their Succession this outward sorcing punishing part does reside in its constant perpetual Seat or
catecumeni quam edocti I will not omit a description of the heretical even conversation how futile how vain how humane it is without Gravity without Autority without Discipline how congruous with their faith first of all who is the catecumen who the faithful 't is uncertain they go together they hear together they pray together even the Ethnicks if they come among them they will cast the holy things to dogs and the Margarites to Swine though not true ones they will have simplicity to be only a prostration of Discipline the care of which that we have they call a cheat or the work of a Pander they give their peace promiscuously with one another nor are they concern'd though different in themselves whilst they conspire to the destruction of one Truth all are puffed up all swell all pretend to science they are first Catecumens ere throughly learn'd Or he that would see this course of Discipline in its fuller draught let him peruse the late learned Annotations in Can. 11. 14. Con. Nic. 1. printed at Oxford now suitable to these stations and orders and degrees in which such as came over to Christianity were placed and according to their proficiency and due behaviour were promoted so were they the rules and measures the ancient Church took for the exercising discipline upon those persons that having passed through them been baptised confirm'd and admitted to the Holy Communion became of the Lapsi fell back again from the grace received Apostatized from their most Holy Order and Profession and that according to the circumstances of such their departure as more or less of guilt appeared And this is plain from the forementioned Canons and others thus in the Can. 11. Conc. Nic. 1. Such as without any necessity no violence to their Goods offered or any sensible danger appearing did recede under Licinius the Tyrant their Penance or Discipline was upon a true repentance to be placed back again and become hearers only for three years and after two years more among the Orantes they were readmitted to the Holy Altar So Can. 14. The proportionate punishments were inflicted on the Catecumeni and others lapsed in Can 4. Conc. Ancyr They on the other hand that sacrificed by force but yet did eat at the Idol Feasts without any remorse expressed either in their habits and countenance though not adhering to them their Punishment was less to be Hearers only but one year to become prostrate three two years to attend the place of Prayer and then to go on to that which is perfect to be admitted again to the advantage of the great mystery and highest instance of Christian Devotion the partaking of the holy Altar and Can. 5. those that eat with apparent present remorse evidenced by their tears being substrate two years in the third year they were fully restored and so according to the proportion of the demerit and as the more or less guilt appear'd such was the Amerciament as is to be seen in the following Canons of that Council and I have produced my instances out of these two Councils both for the greatest autority and very near greatest antiquity they being very ancient of these Ecclesiastical Penances and the way used by the Church in the laying of them And all this that it was appropriated and peculiar to the Office of the Priesthood in whose alone hands it resided and in the obedience alone and subjection to whom it was adjudged acceptable in the performance is equally evident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius Ep. ad Philadelph ed. Voss when repenting they come to the Unity of the Church and the Regiment and Subjection to the Bishop these are of God and the Lord will forgive them Penitentiam autem ille agit qui divinis Praeceptis mitis patiens sacerdotibus Dei obtemperans obsequiis suis operibus justis Deum promeretur He it is that is the true Penitent who meekly and patiently according to the Divine Precepts and submitting to the Priests of God by his Obedience and just Performances regains or obtains favour anew of God Cypr. Ep. 4. ed. Pamel As it is even necessary to examine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rise and kind of the Repentance in order to the due Punishment So this Power is in the Bishop to whom it is lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to consult in order to Mercy or Severity Can. 12 13. Conc. 1. Nic. So Can. 5. Conc. Ancyr the Bishops have Power to examine the manner of the Penitents conversation and to use Clemency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to add to the time of his Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to add to or abate of the Penance and all this as very ancient in Church Story so is it a transcript of that which is from the beginning of St. Paul's own hand and original in that Person under the Church censures 2 Cor. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. Sufficient to such an one is this Punishment inflicted by many so that contrariwise ye ought to forgive him lest perhaps such an one be swallow'd up with overmuch sorrow Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love towards him for to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether ye be obedient in all things to whom ye forgive any thing I forgive for if I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I it in the Person of Christ lest Sathan should get the advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices THERE is a fifth instance of Power peculiar and appropriate to the Gospel Ministry § XXXII invested alone in it which is Excision or Excommunication a Power of cutting off from this Body or Association upon the failure of those terms and conditions of Duty in the Performance of which either the Body in general or the interest and advantage of each particular Christian can be preserved And this is more than an Abstention of which we have an instance out of St. Cyprian Vtar eâ admonitione quâ me uti Dominus jubet ut interim prohibeantur offerre a forbidding the Holy Altar Ep. 10. ad finem but there is a censura Evangelica a Gospel censure which follows upon this Discipline or Ecclesiastical Punishment if contemned and mentioned together with it by St. Cyprian Ep. 52. ad finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be cast out of the Church or excommunicated by which words Excommunication is expressed Can. 2. Conc. Antioch is a farther Act or Punishment upon such as had first passed the other Sentence upon themselves turned themselves out of the Communion of the Church in its Prayers and holy Eucharist and which seems the sense and design of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 9. Apost that farther Separation to be made of such as in a case very like it would come to Church and hear the Scriptures but separate from Prayers and the Holy Communion An act or censure that
Acts of Charity we know are to cease in respect of Acts of Justice nor does the Practice of Charity oblige at all but as qualified and in set Capacities every one is to give as he is able and yet both oblige in their kind and order and the engagement is always the same and perpetual the former is not null'd by reason of the present incapacity or doth it end with the Cessation as to Practice or hath the veriest Lazar a Charter thereby for inhumanity And upon the same account it is and the Parity of Reason that even particular Acts of the Positive Institutions and Worship of God give way to Obedience to Governors and when the common Political good of Mankind is engaged as I shall have occasion to instance farther hereafter Upon these accounts it is that the Laws and Magistracy are not to be affronted or contemned nor can the Magistracy it self subsist with the Church upon other terms Obedience is to be preferr'd before Sacrifice the positive Appointments even of God himself and much more may the Obligation cease and which created in us a Duty in Laws purely Humane and Ecclesiastical 'T is true these Powers did never yet clash or break out into publick Oppositions from the time that the Empire became Christian and so along in the best and flourishing Ages as is above observed the Empire still consulting the Church and her Canons were made Law or if otherwise and some particular Indulgences and Abatements there was as to Church Duties by good Emperors upon the score of their alone Imperial Power granted as some there was upon what rules of Policy and Necessity is not now needful to enquire and which we have reason to believe the Church never consented to and to be sure there was no antecedent Canon to go by yet we know this that the Church submitted and her Discipline was so far relaxed and abated thereby Constantine the Great was always a favourer of the true Catholicks and upheld and maintain'd them in each their Privileges and Immunities suffering no one Sect to advance above to oppress and invade them and yet he sometimes gave Indulgencies to all Sects whatever the Heathens not excepted and laid Penalties upon none because of their Religion and the Novatians in particular had again special favour when all other Conventicles were put down Euseb Hist l. 10. c. 5. De Vit. Constant l. 2. c. 59. Socrat. Hist l. 5. c. 10. and that they had their Churches in Rome it self and flourish'd there in many Congregations and with great Auditories Socrates also tells us till removed by Pope Celestinus l. 7. c. 11. and that most Pestilent Sect of the Donatists all along condemn'd by the Catholick Church was so long indulg'd by Constantine till incourag'd by his Mercy they brake out into Tumults and Seditions and the Empire was unsafe even shaken by them the Natural effect of all Schisms and there was a Necessity for recalling their Grants of Liberty as aso by their other continued outrages upon all that was Sacred and Separate whether Persons or Objects all which is to be seen at large in Optatus and Saint Austin especially Lib. 3. Cont. Cres con Donatist or he that desires an account of them more briefly let him read it given by Vallesius in his Treatise entitled De Scismate Donatist bound up at the end of his Eusebius Church History Now in these Cases the Church Power and Laws are to cease in part in the Execution though the right remains nor were they so exercised against these Schismaticks as otherwise they ought and would have been If God's Name cannot be glorified on Earth in that decent befitting reverend useful way agreeing with his Nature and Worship and our relations to him and the whole Earth be filled with his due Praise at once the Church Power and Laws which provide that it may are not to be stretched beyond those Designs for which she is endowed with a Power for Sanction nor can any Society suppose themselves obliged to promote by such means as God never put into their hands the holy Bishops therefore and good Christians of old praised God for the Liberties and Advantages they had in their own Persons and Congregations adorning their Professions by Zeal and good Works they could not remedy in others what Power and Laws which they had not did indulge and indemnifie them in Or if this by a Law he denied to themselves the Laws purely Ecclesiastical were never design'd nor urg'd so to oblige against the state as that the particular Practice is in the immutable indispensable Duties for Heaven and in such cases 't is only their equity reasonableness higher use and advantage in the Christian Worship is to be insinuated pleaded and perswaded unto Autority over mens Persons or Actions was never placed in Church-men nor has it any other influence or effect upon either than to exclude them the Kingdom of Heaven nor will omissions of this Nature and under the same Circumstances amount unto that nor can any man lose his Heaven for it it may be a Sin in such as with too much liberty or too little regard indulge or restrain or in such as too gladly accept of it to the neglect or abuse or contempt of the Service of God but there can be none in those where Necessity lays the force and the harder terms and obligations from the Powers of the World makes the intermission and Vacancies in the Performances § X TO say the whole and alone Power to make Church Laws and six Rules in God's Worship is in the Prince is against the supposal that the Church is an Incorporation by Divine Appointment with its own Laws and Officers a City within it self with its own Rules for Unity within its self and those that place all here and such there be and urge the unreasonableness of Separation upon the account of things indifferent because against the civilly established Polity of a Nation which has appointed their present use and observancy seem to make the terms for Unity and Compliance too wide as others do too narrow and the accidents of the World may occasion inconveniencies insupportable the very naming it is Scandalous that a Christian is originally engaged by his Profession to receive Rules in Holy Worship from an Atheist or a Mahumetan for such Persons may be and so then it must be upon these Principles 't is one thing to want what ought to be or what is most useful through an undue Administration of Justice and which my Religion may engage me to undergo and quite another thing to be antecedently engag'd in their Determinations Nor again on the other hand can the Church be supposed to ingage immutably and peremptorily by those Laws of her own though never so apt and useful to the Practice of which the Persons and other Advantages from the World are necessary and which she hath not in her Power as she is a Society of our Saviour's Institution